Today was transformative for me.

Not because I met Ron Paul in the flesh for the first time -- though that did happen, at the campaign rally in Greenville, South Carolina. I even shook his hand, and suggested he quiz Fed Chairman Bernanke on how exactly the shadowy and mysterious "inflation expectations" he always cites could be the source of actual inflation.

No, the day was a watershed for me not because of Ron Paul -- whom I understand pretty well and am already in support of -- but because of everyone except Ron Paul at that rally. The surprise to me was the people.

You see, I went in expecting an audience which was somehow "not normal", indescribably; maybe quirky or geeky; paranoid; socially-awkward; heavily biased towards "fringe" types. You know, internet people.

Well, if these were "internet people," we apparently need to rethink our notion of what the internet consists of. Because this audience was America.

That is perhaps the most succinct way I can put it. It was as if 2,000 of my nicest neighbors were brought together in one place.

No trace of "fringe groups"; this was as far from a "circus" as you could get.

Now, I always knew that Ron Paul was supported by "regular people" (though I'm not sure I consider myself one). But after reading mainstream Ron Paul "expose`" articles like this one, I expected to see a few more conspicious "9/11 Truthers"; ranters-on about the Bilderbergers, "gold-bugs," whatever. Pick your clique. I don't mean to diminish these groups -- in fact I sympathize with all their views somewhat -- but they are simply considered "fringe" in the popular conception. You aren't supposed to associate with them.

And there was no sign of them at the rally.

Ok, I saw one young man with a "Kissinger - war crimes" t-shirt (which I'm actually sympathetic to), and maybe one guy with a 9/11 Truth t-shirt. That was it.

I think I may have seen fewer such "fringe" themes displayed at the Ron Paul rally than I might have seen walking down the street on a typical day.

What's the signifiance of all this? Well, to me, the above is incredibly encouraging. It means the support for Ron Paul, and more importantly the ideas of his campaign, is broad-based. "Average Americans" -- middle-class, hard-working, honest folk -- buy into Ron Paul's freedom message big-time. They just need the chance to hear it.

And that means the sky is the limit for the "Ron Paul Revolution." It means anywhere you find an honest American, you've found a potential Paul supporter. The only limit is how fast the message can travel, and once again, the internet appears to be breaking records on that front.

The mainstream media's coverage (or lack thereof) of the Ron Paul campaign seems to me all the more divorced from reality given what I saw today. It borders on the malicious. Using the example of Caldwell's article again, note that he starts out by qualifying Paul as a "long-shot". Really, Chris? Is that a fact? Can you quantify that, say, relative to McCain?

Maybe what Caldwell meant to say was "Ron Paul, the 10-term Texas congressman and [throw-your-vote-away] Republican presidential candidate..."

The rest of his article provides evidence of what he really thinks of Ron Paul and his support movement. Caldwell made sure to back-load the article with vaguely creepy things about all those "fringe groups" supporting Paul -- the ones I saw no sign of at the actual rally. As a journalist, Caldwell must know that readers will be left with an emotional impression which is disproportionately tilted towards what is said near the end, as well as a motif throughout. Even I was.

My initial reaction to this morbid fascination with "fringe" support was that it doesn't matter -- because its the message that is important. I still believe that. But the argument (implicit or otherwise) that fringe groups somehow "taint" the movement is totally bogus, and can be obviated easily. How? Ask yourself if you think the "mainstream" candidates have a totally "clean" roster of major supporters.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

The best Caldwell can seem to muster in the way of compliment is to quizzically observe that Ron Paul seems to bring together many disparate types. Not supplied is an explanation of what is so jarringly "different" about them, beyond the fact that they might normally vote in either of the two major parties. It seems to me that all these people simply love freedom. In that sense, they're actually in the same category.

So beware journalistic attempts to marginalize Paul. If you listen to his message directly, you may find that you are more in agreement with what he is saying than with any of the "major" candidates -- in either party.

Hundreds of thousands have already discovered this. Let's make it millions.

Below is some media from my trip (STILL ADDING)

Here are some pics of vehicles decorated in the Ron Paul spirit:

Below are some shots of the packed hall at the Carolina First Expo Center. Notice that by the time the rally was underway, the partition cutting the room in half had been removed. The additional space was all used, and then some.

Ron Paul speaking:

And finally, here are some videos I took of Dr. Paul talking. I should say, his speech was excellent; better, in my opinion, than any of the ones from the previous rallies I've seen so far (via YouTube). But I can't quantify that

Ok, I can't figure out what mojo Justin used to post his YouTube videos on here in the past. So here's a link to my index of Ron Paul videos on YouTube (uploaded so far), at least.